New build - Electricity bill

Robert Allen

Hi guys, advice please if anyone can offer guidance.

Ive a new build, 2800sqft, 'A' rated, well insulated floor, walls, ceiling, tripple glazed windows, air to water system with UFh, most room stats set to 20 or 21 degrees, heat recovery system.

All the standard kitchen appliances, a mix of led spots and standard lights, nothing plugged in or using electricity apart from tv and sky box.

We use a normal amount of hot water per week also.

We got a bill of €400 for esb this week, not an estimated bill and yes this includes the busy christmas period and cold weather, dark evenings etc.

Regardless of the above, of those of you familiar with similar new builds do you think i should generally expect it to be lower? Would this seem normal to you or would you think its high?

If anyone has a similar house type perhaps you could give me an idea of how much yours is coming in at.

Thanks everybody - its just after paying so much to build the place i was hoping it would be lower!
(Also the house is well dried out etc and for what its worth the Daikin A to W system doesnt seem to be on a huge amount either)

Thanks.

macgabhs

Probably about right. I’ve a similar size house built 3 years ago also with a daikin A2W my bill for the same period is €370. I use level pay to spread the cost as with a heat pump there is a massive difference between electricity usage winter to summer.

mickdw

If you only have those figures for half the year, it's probably cheap. Assuming that is the 2 monthly bill.
I know someone getting 700 2 monthly bills due to heat pump.
If your airtightness and insulation is not spot on, heat pump will be expensive.
I always think it's madness retrofitting them.to older housing.

Robert Allen

macgabhs wrote: »

Probably about right. I’ve a similar size house built 3 years ago also with a daikin A2W my bill for the same period is €370. I use level pay to spread the cost as with a heat pump there is a massive difference between electricity usage winter to summer.

Thanks macgabhs for getting back to me. Ill look into that way of paying it also as it makes sense. Its Good to know theres not something wrong somewhere with it at least!

We are only here for about 4 hours in the evening during the week before everyone goes to bed so i just thought it was a little high!

Ill keep an eye and see what the next one comes in at and see what to do about it then.

Thanks again .

Robert Allen

mickdw wrote: »

If you only have those figures for half the year, it's probably cheap. Assuming that is the 2 monthly bill.
I know someone getting 700 2 monthly bills due to heat pump.
If your airtightness and insulation is not spot on, heat pump will be expensive.
I always think it's madness retrofitting them.to older housing.

Thanks for that,

Im out around the back doing jobs etc and rarely hear the heat pump on which is probably good i guess.

I agree on the retrofit - even if a ball of cash is thrown at it its still hard to get right.

I might look at trying to get an app to monitor it or something. Id love to have a more detailed breakdown of usage out of interest.

Apart from lights, fridge, freezer, oven, dishwasher, micro, hob, a couple of showers per week, a couple of washing machine and dryer loads its hard to see where it all goes ( though when listed out like that it seems like a lot!!)

The fan in the freezer has been kicking off a bit more than id think to be normal so maybe hes contributing a good chunk!!

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

ax530

Sounds expensive, we big house 5 year old heat pump someone in house all time bill every 2 months circa 240(winter)-170(summer). Air tight, heat recovery ect.
Do recall some tweaking at start with heat system to make more efficient. One being not to zone it keep at at one temperature also can have on timer so if during day temp falls a bit heat won't kick in until evening.

Robert Allen

ax530 wrote: »

Sounds expensive, we big house 5 year old heat pump someone in house all time bill every 2 months circa 240(winter)-170(summer). Air tight, heat recovery ect.
Do recall some tweaking at start with heat system to make more efficient. One being not to zone it keep at at one temperature also can have on timer so if during day temp falls a bit heat won't kick in until evening.

Thanks for the reply.

Is it an Air to water pump? With underfloor heating or rads?

We have ufh on both levels, i think the thinking is if u leave the heat on a timer/off it will take too long to heat up when you do want it.

Thanks.

0lddog

OP, two questions :

How many kWHr were you billed for ?

Do you have a day / night meter ?

ax530

Air to water yes, underfloor heating downstairs. Rads upstairs but we rarely use these on occasion hit a boost button which turns them on for an hour.
Yes that is the idea and find house can maintain the heat unless people going in and out often so will not need the pump kicking in.
We have day/night rate

macgabhs

Robert Allen wrote: »

Thanks for that,

Im out around the back doing jobs etc and rarely hear the heat pump on which is probably good i guess.

I agree on the retrofit - even if a ball of cash is thrown at it its still hard to get right.

I might look at trying to get an app to monitor it or something. Id love to have a more detailed breakdown of usage out of interest.

Apart from lights, fridge, freezer, oven, dishwasher, micro, hob, a couple of showers per week, a couple of washing machine and dryer loads its hard to see where it all goes ( though when listed out like that it seems like a lot!!)

The fan in the freezer has been kicking off a bit more than id think to be normal so maybe hes contributing a good chunk!!

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I was the same as you when I moved in I wanted more information so I got an open energy monitor. It shows the real-time usage and graphs it over time. You do see that the heat pump is significant but there is definitely a not insignificant increase during the times when the house is occupied. Overall I’m happy with the yearly cost which is around €1300 total for all energy use.

dubrov

When you say "not an estimated bill", were both the previous and current meter readings actual?

€400 for 1 month seems very high to me for an A rated home. I would've thought it would be half that or less.

A2W heat pumps should always lower heating bills. Of course, if they are misused by running them constantly in an non-airtight house, it will lead to high bills

RonanC

I have a pretty similar recent self build (2018) to you and our bills are around €400 - 450 every two months in the winter months. Spring summer then reduces to €180 on average.

Faiche Ro

A bit of a vague question but if solar panels were to be installed (say 7 panels) what would be the expected decrease in the bill?

would it save as much as 50%?

Robert Allen

macgabhs wrote: »

I was the same as you when I moved in I wanted more information so I got an open energy monitor. It shows the real-time usage and graphs it over time. You do see that the heat pump is significant but there is definitely a not insignificant increase during the times when the house is occupied. Overall I’m happy with the yearly cost which is around €1300 total for all energy use.

Thanks for getting back to me - can i find these handy enough or would you mind sending the name? Thanks.

Robert Allen

Faiche Ro wrote: »

A bit of a vague question but if solar panels were to be installed (say 7 panels) what would be the expected decrease in the bill?

would it save as much as 50%?

Interesting question if anyone could answer it or even if solar pv was to be installed would it make a big difference after payback period etc?

The Deap calculations didnt call for solar. I was going to plumb the place for solar but it came to 4 or 5 G at the time so opted against it.

Thanks.

Robert Allen

dubrov wrote: »

When you say "not an estimated bill", were both the previous and current meter readings actual?

€400 for 1 month seems very high to me for an A rated home. I would've thought it would be half that or less.

A2W heat pumps should always lower heating bills. Of course, if they are misused by running them constantly in an non-airtight house, it will lead to high bills

It was €408 for the two month period, i shouldve clarified that but there was an assumption on my behalf that all esb bills coverd 2 month periods.

Apologies if that wasnt clear - its coming in at €200 per month roughly.

Thanks.

mike_2009

PV might not directly impact it - you won't get much generation when you need it most, in winter. But it would decrease your bill in summertime to offset the high winter usage. Have you nightsaver tarrif or regular?

bfclancy

Shows what a farce these BER ratings really are. An a-rated house consuming 400 +Euro of electricity in a two month period. Farcical.

mike_2009

I bought a D1 and did a little attic insulation, heating controls, led's and then added PV and it went to a B1. Was shocked. It's still not what I would call comfortable - have to look at air tightness, ventilation, external insulation next, doubt all of that will get me to an A3!! Bit strange alright.
If you consider all your space heating, hot water, cooking and other electrical use adds up €200 a month in winter, that's €50 per week but it's all electric. There's no oil, gas, propane, turf or coal in that mix. The heat pump % does scare me a bit. I don't think I want to install one in the near future until I see more accurate modeling of renovated houses being carried out.....

staples7

Identical sized house finished in mid 2017. A2 rated. Electricity bill was just under 400 last time out. It was read but I think the bill before that was estimated too low. Soon after moving in I moved to night rate and I think it makes a difference with the heat pump. On average 180 every 2 months (outside winter months). Winter months about the 300 mark or just over. Having said that we use a lot of hot water with small kids baths etc not to mention the drier

Robert Allen wrote: »

Hi guys, advice please if anyone can offer guidance.

Ive a new build, 2800sqft, 'A' rated, well insulated floor, walls, ceiling, tripple glazed windows, air to water system with UFh, most room stats set to 20 or 21 degrees, heat recovery system.

All the standard kitchen appliances, a mix of led spots and standard lights, nothing plugged in or using electricity apart from tv and sky box.

We use a normal amount of hot water per week also.

We got a bill of €400 for esb this week, not an estimated bill and yes this includes the busy christmas period and cold weather, dark evenings etc.

Regardless of the above, of those of you familiar with similar new builds do you think i should generally expect it to be lower? Would this seem normal to you or would you think its high?

If anyone has a similar house type perhaps you could give me an idea of how much yours is coming in at.

Thanks everybody - its just after paying so much to build the place i was hoping it would be lower!
(Also the house is well dried out etc and for what its worth the Daikin A to W system doesnt seem to be on a huge amount either)

Thanks.